Cindy Sherman
Paper Proposal
Cindy Sherman was one of the well known and most respected photographers in the late twentieth century. Rather than doing self portraits for her photographs, Sherman depicted herself in the roles of B- movie actresses. On one level, Sherman’s work appears to be subversively linked to ‘low’ art characterized by ‘b-grade’ film and photography, on another level, her work is regarded as the modernist ideal of the ‘high' art object. Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art. Sherman has been acclaimed as the subversive feminist that has boldly confronted issues concerning the female body. Even though some critics look at Cindy’s works as demining the women and exposing the women into low standards through her photographs, Cindy had a strong message for the viewers. In 1992 Sherman embarked on a series of photographs now referred to as "Sex Pictures." Sherman is not in any of these photographs for the first time in her career as an artist, yet she uses dolls and prosthetic body parts posed in highly sexual poses. She chose to often photograph up close and in color both female and male body parts which were purposely meant to shock the viewers. Sherman continued to work on these photographs for some time and continued to experiment with the use of dolls and other replacements for what had previously been herself. Critiques imply that the viewer is guilty for the negative readings of Sherman’s images. In a way Sherman’s constructed image of woman is innocent, and the way we interpret it is based on our social and cultural knowledge. Referring to the reaction of a gallery visitor who criticized Sherman for presenting women as sex objects, I would say that the visitor’s anger comes from a sense of his own involvement because the images speak not only to him but from him. Critiques depicted Sherman as a whore for producing such photographs but
Cindy Sherman was one of the well known and most respected photographers in the late twentieth century. Rather than doing self portraits for her photographs, Sherman depicted herself in the roles of B- movie actresses. On one level, Sherman’s work appears to be subversively linked to ‘low’ art characterized by ‘b-grade’ film and photography, on another level, her work is regarded as the modernist ideal of the ‘high' art object. Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art. Sherman has been acclaimed as the subversive feminist that has boldly confronted issues concerning the female body. Even though some critics look at Cindy’s works as demining the women and exposing the women into low standards through her photographs, Cindy had a strong message for the viewers. In 1992 Sherman embarked on a series of photographs now referred to as "Sex Pictures." Sherman is not in any of these photographs for the first time in her career as an artist, yet she uses dolls and prosthetic body parts posed in highly sexual poses. She chose to often photograph up close and in color both female and male body parts which were purposely meant to shock the viewers. Sherman continued to work on these photographs for some time and continued to experiment with the use of dolls and other replacements for what had previously been herself. Critiques imply that the viewer is guilty for the negative readings of Sherman’s images. In a way Sherman’s constructed image of woman is innocent, and the way we interpret it is based on our social and cultural knowledge. Referring to the reaction of a gallery visitor who criticized Sherman for presenting women as sex objects, I would say that the visitor’s anger comes from a sense of his own involvement because the images speak not only to him but from him. Critiques depicted Sherman as a whore for producing such photographs but